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2017
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83
104 Peter Curling (b.1955) AT THE TOP OF THE HILLsigned lower left
watercolour
44 x 74.5cm (17 x 29in)
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The Tryon Gallery Ltd, London (label verso);
Private Collection
€5,000-7,000 (£4,347-6,086)
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exhibition in the racing centre of Lambourn at the tender age of fourteen. Sell out exhibitions in Dublin
followed and it wasn’t long before he came to the attention of Aylmer Tryon, founder of the Tryon
Gallery and the renowned horse portraitist Susan Crawford. They advised him to go to Florence where
he spent two years studying in the studio of Signorina Simi. This classical training stood him in good
stead as he has always placed the utmost importance in sound draughtsmanship. It was to this end that
he spent a short but invaluable time with the sculptor John Skeaping R.A.. Skeaping impressed on the
young artist the value of economy of line and the ultimate goal of depicting movement, balance and a
solidity of form without lumbering the work with too much detail. Curling also developed a close link
with the racing world and has enjoyed the whole spectrum of that fascinating sport from riding in races
to ownership, training point-to-pointers, and stewarding.